We're ready for our next Disney vacation!!
 | We are so fortunate and incredibly blessed that we have another upcoming Disney vacation in a couple of weeks and as the weeks are getting closer, we cannot wait for it to begin! We've been planning our Disney cruise for almost 10 months with the decision made last fall to go on the Disney Wonder to Alaska. We are going with a group of 25 people in total as a part of a multi-generation family reunion, dubbed "Tsang Yeung Family Reunion 2014"! 25 people, 8 families and 8 kids under the age of 8.....epic family reunion! |
Half the fun of the Disney cruise vacation has been in the planning and preparations for the trip! Not only was I coordinating the travel details for a group of 25 people, I was immersed in Disney Cruise Line culture as I discovered there is a whole underground civilization of Disney Cruise addicts with activities and groups that are found only with Disney Cruise participants! In my "research" of Disney cruise vacation planning, there are all these extra "activities" and suggested "must do's" to make your vacation planning even more fun and magical for the trip! So out comes the creative juices of my brain to maximize the fun factor for our vacation...
What is a Fish Extender?? If you go online and look, you will find a plethora of Disney cruise forums, groups and lots of online communities devoted to Disney and Disney Cruises. There are specific online communities dedicated to each Disney cruise, specific to the location and the week of sail. You can find your sail date cruise on www.disboards.com and on Facebook if you search your cruise for the week and destination. Find your cruise and join the online community and you can interact with others who will be sailing with you on the same cruise. It's a great way to meet new people onboard and have fun interacting with each other before your trip! A Fish Extender group takes this a step further where participants can "opt in" and participate in a Fish Extender Gift Exchange with whoever wishes to participate. Usually someone will volunteer to organize and arrange the group details. You submit your cabin number (if known) and the names and ages of those in the cabin. For those who have chosen to participate in Fish Extender group, everyone buys or makes little gifts or crafts for those in the cabin. It's kind of like a "Secret Santa" exchange for all the participants. The gifts themselves do not have to be anything extravagant. There are lots of great ideas on Pinterest and Etsy for ideas. Crafty individuals make little souvenir items like key chains, hand sanitizer, personalized gifts or gifts with the cruise dates, etc.
What is a Fish Extender?? If you go online and look, you will find a plethora of Disney cruise forums, groups and lots of online communities devoted to Disney and Disney Cruises. There are specific online communities dedicated to each Disney cruise, specific to the location and the week of sail. You can find your sail date cruise on www.disboards.com and on Facebook if you search your cruise for the week and destination. Find your cruise and join the online community and you can interact with others who will be sailing with you on the same cruise. It's a great way to meet new people onboard and have fun interacting with each other before your trip! A Fish Extender group takes this a step further where participants can "opt in" and participate in a Fish Extender Gift Exchange with whoever wishes to participate. Usually someone will volunteer to organize and arrange the group details. You submit your cabin number (if known) and the names and ages of those in the cabin. For those who have chosen to participate in Fish Extender group, everyone buys or makes little gifts or crafts for those in the cabin. It's kind of like a "Secret Santa" exchange for all the participants. The gifts themselves do not have to be anything extravagant. There are lots of great ideas on Pinterest and Etsy for ideas. Crafty individuals make little souvenir items like key chains, hand sanitizer, personalized gifts or gifts with the cruise dates, etc.
The Fish Extender itself is a tool you hang outside your cabin door on the fish hook, hence the name "Fish Extender". Each Fish Extender is personalized with individual pouches for each member in the cabin room so people can leave little gifts for each person in the cabin. It's fun to go and check out different decks as you deliver your gifts secretly so as not to be discovered by other members! And it's a lot of fun as you return to your cabin and find little treats or gifts in your pouches! There are lots of fantastic ideas and really pretty Fish Extenders found on Pinterest and Etsy for the really crafty individuals. I don't sew, so I had to get creative with my Fish Extender!
Another fun activity to help with the Fish Extender groups is to personalize your cabin door! The cabin will be your home for the duration of the cruise (7 nights in our case) so you might as well make it yours for the week! By personalizing your cabin door, it makes it easier to find your cabin, for yourselves and for those who will be dropping off Fish Extender gifts. If you have young kids, it's also much easier for them to find the cabin when it's personalized as opposed to trying to remember the cabin number amongst long hallways of continuous plain cabin doors on both sides. The cabin doors are magnetic so it's easy to create some magnets to decorate your door while making it much easier to find! I also created magnetic photos of our family Disney vacations to decorate our door and personalize with our Disney family memories too!
Because we are travelling as a large group and central to any Disney vacation with a group is .... MATCHING T-SHIRTS!!
Another MUST DO activity is to collect autographs from all the characters onboard! You can either purchase or create your own autograph book or use a blank white pillowcase to collect autographs as a fantastic souvenir of the trip! If you don't want to run around all week on board collecting autographs, you can simply drop off your autograph book/item at Guest Services (with markers) at the beginning of your cruise then pick it up at the end of the cruise and your item will have all the character autographs on it without having to chase down characters all week! I chose to personalize a fabric tote as our souvenir and plan on collecting character autographs for it for our Disney Cruise souvenir item! I think it will look awesome! (Check back after the cruise and I will post the final outcome so you can see what it looks like!)
One of the unique activities on the Disney Wonder to Alaska is the Pixar Pals Party. It's a fun and interactive dance party with all the Pixar characters present and everyone is encouraged to dress up as their favourite Pixar characters! (Or a Disney character will also suffice!) Dress up, join the dance party and have some fun on deck!
We have decided to go as "The Incredibles" family and have created our costumes for our upcoming party!
We have decided to go as "The Incredibles" family and have created our costumes for our upcoming party!
 Something pretty Incredible is happening... |  Feeling pretty Incredible! We're ready to save the world! |
I've got some pretty Incredible kids here!
I've still got lots of little things to do before our cruise including assembling all my Fish Extender gifts for other families in my Fish Extender group, (which I won't post so as not to spoil the surprise!). But it has been such a fun process along the way! Stay tuned for more details about the cruise in its complete glory as we set sail in a couple of weeks! Let me know if you've been on a Disney cruise and have any additional tips and tricks so we don't miss out on anything!
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